It is conventional wisdom that any marketer worth their salt would regularly channel their efforts through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

But LinkedIn? It’s not often thought of as a significant platform for campaign activity.

However, unlike other platforms that are in varying stages of an identity crisis, LinkedIn has found its niche – a social media platform for business networking.

Even before visiting the site, users are primed for industry content; a huge plus point for B2B and B2C marketers. With more than 450 million users, leaders from Fortune 500 companies, 40 million decision makers, 61 million senior-level business professionals and C-suite executives, LinkedIn is populated by influential and high-level executives.

This gives B2B marketing campaigns a chance to shore up brand awareness while simultaneously helping businesses actively engage, generate leads, or even recruit top talent.

But most of all, LinkedIn is used to distribute content. Forgo the myth that LinkedIn is used only by job switchers or job-seekers; businesses are achieving positive results by including LinkedIn in their digital marketing strategy.

How they did it

Since nothing paints a clearer picture than actual examples of brands that used content to achieve outstanding real-life results, here’s what successful marketing on LinkedIn looks like:

1. Adobe

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Challenge: A global leader in digital marketing and digital media solutions, Adobe wanted to further establish itself as a forerunner, and increase awareness about its digital marketing solutions. The company couldn’t find a significantly reliable yet result-oriented channel that could trigger this and reach the targeted audience.

Solution: Content marketing came to the rescue. For Adobe, the perfect medium to approach an engaged, professional audience was through LinkedIn’s publishing platform. The platform’s Sponsored Content feature was used to share curated and strategised content about digital strategies with a key target audience.

Result: The compelling insights and relevant articles shared through Sponsored Content improved Adobe’s reputation and strengthened its presence as a pioneer in the field.

2. American Express

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Challenge: Owners of small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are an integral part of the established global community. Financial support is crucial to empower their growth. But communicating with decision-makers who can provide the funding is difficult. Interestingly, it’s not only the SMBs that stand to gain from this association; such business links can also help funding parties improve industry presence.

Solution: American Express partnered with LinkedIn to target SMB prospects with a go-getting digital media strategy. The goal was to raise awareness about funding solutions that could facilitate buying power to conveniently pay for large purchases. Amex used insightful, relevant, and well-targeted content that helped action a direct response and deliver quality leads.

Result: Aided by LinkedIn, Amex recognised the right people and used targeted content to engage with consumers at the optimum time. By monitoring statistics, the company could not only sustain but also grow the number of quality leads.

3. HubSpot

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Challenge: A leader in inbound marketing, HubSpot does a good job of promoting itself. But the company is always looking to generate quality leads and traffic. Therefore, it wished to use webinars, how-to guides, and prominent e-books to engage marketing professionals.

Solution: LinkedIn provided the right setting to build relationships and connect with marketers. With the help of Sponsored Content, HubSpot was able to make its relevant content appear alongside organic content from members’ feeds.

Result: Facilitating the distribution of relevant content, LinkedIn delivered more qualified leads for HubSpot during the campaign than any other platform. HubSpot was able to expand its targeted reach, promote its best offers, and improve lead generation.

4. HSBC

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Challenge: One of the largest banking and financial organisations in the world, HSBC wanted to be seen as a strategic partner rather than a transactional partner by its audience. The bank wished to achieve this through content that positioned it as a thought leader.

Solution: Sponsored Content allowed HSBC to handpick the most relevant content and target an interested audience via LinkedIn’s feed. This enabled it to test an array of variables and optimise them along the way.

Result: HSBC’s cherry-picked content strategy helped it deliver timely updates to influential professionals and stimulate interaction.

5. Mercedes-Benz

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Challenge: After luxury auto manufacturer Mercedes-Benz introduced new E-class and S-class models, it sought innovative means to build awareness about its luxury line with an affluent audience.

Solution: In order to distribute content in a way that was meaningful and relevant, Mercedes-Benz looked to LinkedIn’s Sponsored Content along with Display Ads to endorse videos of its luxury line.

Result: Mercedes-Benz was able to connect with high-net-worth professionals, which boosted engagement rates up to 1%. Sponsored Content helped the brand reach an elite audience that was welcoming of such marketing messages, in an environment that drove higher relevance and impact.

Over to you: Want to be a high-stakes player on LinkedIn? 

Whether you wish to approach prospects, build brand awareness, or recruit, LinkedIn’s unbeatable advantage is the nominal budget required to be successful.

The examples listed above illustrate that you can make use of LinkedIn’s dynamic features, extensive engagement methods, and targeting capabilities to stand out and reach a valuable audience. With dedicated effort, results will show.

Maybe it’s time to take LinkedIn for a spin – create your online presence and crush it!